International Patriotic Pillow Case featuring Flags of the Allies, WWI.
Patriotic Pillow Case featuring the International Flags of the Allies. This silk slip case features images of the flags of the nations opposed to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) featuring a large 48 star United States flag, surrounded by the flags of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, and, France, with smaller flags representing, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Panama, Romania, England, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Brazil, Greece, Japan, Cuba, China and Portugal.
Patriotic items with flag themes were popular as souvenirs during the Great War. It is likely, due to the large size of the US flag, that this was made in the United States for sale both domestically and internationally, to honor the allies and the participation and ultimate victory in the First World War.
This item was formerly part of the acclaimed collection of noted antique dealer Mr. Boleslaw Mastai and his wife Marie-Louise d'Otrange Mastai, formerly of New York City, and later Amagansett, Long Island. Their collection was the result of fifty years of collecting, research and study by the late husband-wife team. Mastai started collecting in the mid 20th century and amassed to greatest private flag collection in the United States; which he detailed in his ground breaking book, The Stars and The Stripes; The American Flag from Birth of the Republic to the Present(published by Alfred Knopf, New York 1973). The work was hailed as a revelation of the American Flag as art and as social history.
Provenance:
Ex-Mastai piece, acquired at auction in 2005 from Early American Auctions, Rancho Santa Fe, CA.
ZFC Noteworthy Flag
Sources:
Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
